The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-06-04
LIVING IN LONDON.
Life at the Hotels and Restaurants of the
British Metropolis.

Life at the Hotels and Restaurants of the
British Metropolis.
1t is popular idea in the United
States that living in London is much
cheaper than with us. 1t may be that
there are some places in London where
you can live more cheaply than in q
corresponding situation in New York.
But it must be somewhere out in the
remote suburbs. Clothing is very much
cheaper, and every thing relating to
furniture and some of the better class
of manufactures can be bought here for
a much less price. ' But the actual cost
of living is very much higher Rents
are higher than with us. Taxes are
higher, and the cost of maintaining an
establishment is very much higher.
The pay of servants may be less, but
you have to have more of them. 1t is
also true that the cab fares in London
are less than they are in New York,
but the distances are so great that the
expense of going about is more than
made up by the greater necessity
of employing cabs. The hotels are
more expensive than with us, and do
not begin to give the same accommoda-
tions. The smaller the hotel the higher
the prices. In the first place, there is
not small hotel in London that does
not charge as much for its rooms as any
of the fashionable European plan hotels
on Broadway. The restaurant charges
will average much higher, while the
fees for attendance and the like make
up a bill which is far outside of the
charge of the first-class hotels in New
York. The guide books recommend
tourists to call for their bills every two
or three days. 1t would be better to go
beyond this and pay your bill every day,
because where bill is allowed to run
on it is apt to be added to in way that
is wholly unexplainable and not at all
comforting, even to those who have long
purses.
The hotels and lodging houses of
London are for strangers. No English
man of position will live in a hotel or a
clearinghouse if he is married. Keep
ing house is regarded as a matter of
course. This, for a person who has a
family, is the most economical way to
live if you are going to spend year or
so in London. The restaurants do not
compare with the New York restaurants
in the quality or variety of their food.
The only thing that l have seen which
is better in the English restaurants is
the mutton chops. The mutton chop
with us is greasy and coarse. The En-
glish mutton chop is sweeter and more
delicate than our lamb chop. The En-
glish bread is abminable. You will
hardly find good piece of bread in any
of the restaurants of London unless you
give Especial order for special dinner.
The regular English bread is always
very heavy or dry, and hard and stale.
The so-called French breads are almost
tasteless. The best breads are the Vi
emma rolls, but even these are unsalted.
The butter in all of the restaurants
strikes the American palate at once as
a kind of fiat ointment. 1t is never
sailed, and for a time, until one be-
comes accustomed to the freshness, does
not taste at all like butter. The roast
beef of England will not compare with
our roast beef. The fact that there is
no good coffee served at any of the
public restaurants in England is so well
known as not to need special mention.
The common way of dining at the
public restaurants is from the joint. A
dinner from the joint is served in a
great many of the good restaurants,
costing from about 80 cents to $3.50 in
our money for each order. A dinner
served from joint consists of, in the
first place. liberal allowance of roast
meat. This is in some restaurants
brought up on little table wheeled
alongside of yours and sliced off in your
presence. With this is given boiled
potatoes and some other coarse vege-
tables, sometimes greens and sometimes
Brussels sprouts. The general range
of vegetables appears to be confined to
Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale.
The dessert served with the joint din
ner is a lettuce salad and all you care
to slice off of Stilton or Cheddar cheese.
These dinners are very coarse and
hearty, and are just the thing for man
taking great amount of exercise.
But there is nothing delicate about
them. The absence of sweets from all
of the bills of fare will be especially
noticed by an American. Cor.
NJ Y World.
In Search of Straight Goods.